This build is designed for Conquest Structured Player versus Player

Overview

The double ranged Shatter mesmer is a class that’s difficult to master, not particularly popular but one which is capable of dealing enormous damage. It’s quite possible to spike someone down in seconds, especially with the aid of a Thief.

Weapon Sets and Skills

• Greatsword
• Staff
• Ether Feast
• Blink
• Decoy
• Portal Entre
• Mass Invisibility

Skill Variants

• If your team already has a Mesmer you can swap out Portal Entre for Null Field.
• You can swap out Mass Invisibility for Polymorph Moa

Traits

Trait Variants

• Phantasmal Fury can be taken over Far-Reaching Manipulations. This will allow your Phantasms to have a higher critical hit chance.

Sigils

• Greatsword: Superior Sigil of Fire
• Greatsword: Superior Sigil of Air
• Staff: Superior Sigil of Energy
• Staff: Superior Sigil of Doom

Sigil Variants

• Greatsword: Superior Sigil of Energy over Air
• Staff: Superior Sigil of Battle over Doom

Runes and Amulet

• Superior Rune of the Traveler
• PvP Berserker’s Amulet

Rune Variants

• Superior Rune of Strength

Play and Usage

Your role as a Shatter Mesmer is to support your team with spike damage. You can’t stay on points and you can’t stay in combat for long as you rely on your Shatter skills to maximise your damage output. As a result, you should choose a squishy target and burst him down before rotating to another Control Point or attacking from afar with your Greatsword. I will forewarn that to Shatter properly and quickly the Mesmer requires a great deal of practice and you’ll likely find you die quickly and regularly before you master the class and build.

• Fourth Clone: The Trait Illusionary Persona allows you to become a fourth clone. This means that if you’ve 3 illusions active and you use one of your Shatter skills, it will count as 4 instead of 3. For skills such as Mind Wrack this allows you to deal even more damage. What’s also great about Illusionary Persona is that you can use any of your Shatter skills without having an active illusion meaning you can use Distortion at any time.
• Shatter Use: The first thing you need to know is that to maximise your Shatter damage you need to strip opponents Boons but also stack Vulnerability on them. You should use Cry of Frustration to Boon strip followed by Diversion to not only interrupt your opponent (which deals additional damage per interrupt) but also stacks 5 Vulnerability per clone. It’s fair easy to reach 25 stacks on an opponent with a 4 Shatter combo.
• Burst Chain: If you’re starting in Staff you can use Phase Retreat + Phantasmal Warlock + Dodge (for a 3rd clone) to then Shatter. If you’re using Greasword, you can use Phantasmal Berserker + Mirror Blade + Dodge to then Shatter. The Greatsword spike is particularly strong because you can also use Mind Stab on impact. After either of these chains you’ll be low on skills so you should back away from the fight.
• Staff Control: Your most powerful skill on Staff is Chaos Storm because it provides Boons and can interrupt opponents. You should try to save this for when fighting on the point to prevent opponents reviving allies. Phase Retreat is also one of the best skills on Staff because although it doesn’t act as a stun break, it does teleport you backwards. Combined with its clone generation, it allows you to quickly hide (if you’ve more than 1 clone out already) but also creates distance. Lastly, your Phanstmal Warlock and Chaos Armor are two skills you should simply use to deal damage with the former and protect yourself with the latter. You can also create a Chaos Armor if you use Phase Retreat while inside a Chaos Storm.
• Greasword Control: Without doubt one of my favourite weapon sets in the game, the Mesmer Greatsword provides huge damage with range. Mirror Blade provides a Might and Vulnerability while also generating one clone at your target. Combined with Mind Stab and if you’ve two clones already, it’s a strong spike. Phantasmal Berserker you can use at any time as it deals huge damage but also cripples those it hits. Lastly, Illusionary Wave is a powerful knockback that you should save for when people are trying to stomp.